14 MOVIE HOUSES-Cont'd (1931; Jean Renoir; in French), with Mi- chel Simon and Charles Grandval; and "The Lower Depths" (1936; Jean Renoir; in French), with Jean Gabin and Louis J ouvet May 17: ((The Scarlet Empress" (1934; Josef von Sternberg), with Marlene Dietrich, Sam Jaffe, and John Lodge; and "The Devil Is a Woman" (1935; Josef von Sternberg), with Marlene Dietrich, Lionel Atwill, and Cesar Romero May 18: "Macbeth" (1948; Orson Welles), with Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Her- lihy, and Roddy McDowall; and "Oedipus the King" (1968; Philip Saville), with Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, Lilli Palmer, and Richard Johnson May 19: "Dangerous" (1936; Alfred E. Green), with Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, Alison Skipworth, John Eldredge, and Mar- garet Lindsay; and "Dancing Lady" (1933; Robert Z Leonard), with Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, and Clark Gable. May 20-21: "Last Tango in Paris" (1972; Bernardo Bertolucci; in French and En- glish) with Marlon Brando and Ma- ria Schneider; and "The Men" (1950; Fred Zinnemann), with Teresa Wright, Marlon Brando, Jack Webb, and Everett Sloan. May 22: "La Bête Humaine" (1938; Jean Renoir; in French), wi th Jean Gabin; and ((La Grande IllusIon" (1937; Jean Re- noir; in French), with Erich von Stroheim, Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, and Marcel Dalio. May 23: "Young and Innocent" ("The Girl Was Young;" 1937; Alfred Hitchcock), with Nova Pilbeam, Derrick de Marney, Basil Radford, Percy Marmont, and Mary Clare; and "Murder" (1930; Alfred Hitch- cock), with Herbert Marshall and Norah Baring May 24: "General della Rovere" (t); and "Open City" (1945, Roberto Rossellini; in Italian), with Anna Magnani. May 25: "Ecstasy" (1933; Gustav Machaty; in Czech), with Hedy Lamarr; and "AI- giers" (1938; John Cromwell), with Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer. FILM LIBR.AR.IES, ETC. MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, Roy and Nluta Titus Theatres, 11 W. 53rd St (708-9490; a limit- ed number of tickets are available to those applying for them in person at the museum after 11 on the day of the showing.) THEATRE I: Theatre closed. THEATRE 2: May 17 at 1:30: "It Happened One Night" (1934, directed by Frank Capra), with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, and Walter Connolly. .. t]j May 17 at 4: ((Lady for a Day" (1933; Frank Capra), with Warren William, May Robson, and Glenda Farrell. . . . t]j May 17 at 6:30: "Dirigible" (1931; Frank Capra), with Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, and Fay Wray. . . . t]j May 19 at 3 and 6:30: ((Hoxsey: Quacks Who Cure Cancer?" (1987; Ken Ausubel), a documentary. . . . t]j May 20 at 1:30: ((For- bidden" (1932; Frank Capra), with Bar- bara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, and Ralph Bellamy. . . . t]j May 20 at 4: ((Plati- num Blonde" (1931; Frank Capra), with Loretta Young Robert Williams, and Jean Harlow. . . . t]j May 20 at 6:30: "It Hap- pened One Night." . t]j May 21 at 12 :30: "Lady for a Day."... t]j May 21 at 3: "Dirigible." . . . t]j May 21 at 5 :30: "Amer- ican Madness" (1932; Frank Capra). with Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, and Kay Johnson. . . . t]j May 22 at 2:30: ((That Cer- tain Thing" (1928; Frank Capra; a silent film), with Viola Dana and Ralph Graves. . . . t]j May 22 at 5 :30: "So This Is Love" (1928; Frank Capra; a silent film), with Shirley Mason, William Collier, Jr., and Johnnie Walker. . . . t]j May 23 at 3: "The Way of the Strong" (1928; Frank Capra; a silent film), with Mitchell Lewis and Alice Day. . . . t]j May 23 at 6:30: A program of short films, 1982-87, by Paul Winkler, who will be present. . . . t]j May 24 at 3: "So This Is Love." . . . t]j May 24 at 6:30: "That Cer- tain Thing " WHITNEY MUSEUM, Madison Ave. at 75th St. (5 70-0537)- Through June 5, a program of sixteen films by Andy Warhol The schedule IN BR.IEF of performances is complicated, our best advice is to phone the museum for film and time schedules and ticket information. Closed Mondays. JAPAN SOCIETY, 333 E. 47th St. (75 2-3015)-A program of comedy films May 20 at 6:30 and 8:30: "Tora-San Goes North" (1987; Yoji Yamada; in Japanese, with English sub- titles), with Kiyoshi Atsumi and Toshiro Mifune. COLLECTIVE FOR LIVING CINEMA, 41 White St. (925- 2111)-May 16 at 8: "Remember the Night" (1940; Mitchell Leisen), with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. . . . t]j May 17 at 8: ((La Femme Infidèle" (1968; Claude Chabrol; in French, with English sub- titles), with Stéphane Audran and Maurice Ronet. . . . t]j May 18 at 8. A program of four avant-garde films. . . . t]j May 19 at 8: "Kat- zelmacher" (1969; Rainer Werner Fassbin- der; in German, with Epglish subtitles). . . . t]j May 20 at 8: A program of films by Kem- bra Pfahler, who will be present. . . . t]j May 21-22 at 8: Two different programs of films by young black British filmmakers.. . t]j May 23 at 8: ((Clash by Night" (1952; Fritz Lang), with Barbara Stanwyck and Paul Douglas.... t]j May 24 at 8: "Just Before Nightfall" (1971; Claude Chabrol; in French, with English subtitles). . . . t]j May 25 at 8: A program of four avant-garde films BROOKLYN MUSEUM, Lecture Hall, Eastern Park- way-May 21 at 2: "Do Not Enter: The Visa War Against Ideas" (1986; Robert Richter and Catherine Warnow), a documentary. The filmmakers will be present. (For infor- mation about tickets, can 1-718 638-5000, ext 233.) RESISTANCE AND ESCAPE, 1933-45- The final pro- grams in a free series of films and videos on resistance against the Nazi regime: May 1 7 at 6:30: ((The Children of the 20th of July" (1986; Irmgard von zur Mühlen; in German, with synopsis available).... t]j May 19 at 6:30: ((Down with the Germans" (1984; Die- trich Schubert; in German, with synopsis available). (Goethe House, 1014 Fifth Ave, at 82 nd St 744-8310 Tickets are issued one hour prior to screening) SEE ABOVE FOR THEATRE ADDRESSES AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS. IF A MOVIE HAS BEEN REVIEWED IN liTHE CURRENT CINEMA" DURING THE PAST TWO YEARS, THE DATE OF ITS REVIEW IS GIVEN. (Unsigned notes are by Pauline Kael; others are by Terrence Rafferty) Au REVOIR LES ENFANTS (GOODBYE, CHILDREN)- It's set in Occupied France in 1944, when the wri ter-director Louis Malle was an eleven- year-old at a Catholic boys' boarding school near Fontainebleau that sheltered several Jewish boys. The Gestapo learned they were there, and sent the ones they found to Ausch- witz, and the headmaster to a work camp. One of the Jewish boys was in Malle's class, but Malle didn't get to know him well and didn't realize that he was Jewish. For the dramatic purposes of the movie, he has con- ceived a close friendship between his alter ego, the fair-haired Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesse), and the dark boy who is using the false name Jean Bonnet (Raphaël Fejtö). But nothing comes into clear focus-not the boys' attitudes, not even the images. The film (especially the first half) seems padded, formal, discreet It's like watch- ing a faded French classic. And there's something unseemly about the way Jean is used as an aesthetic object-spiritual, sensitive, exotic With Francine Racette as Julien's mother and François Négret as the informer In French (Reviewed in our issue of 2/22/88) (Quad Cinema, and Festival) BABETTE'S FEAST-In a village on Denmark's gray, blustery Jutland peninsula, sometime in the eighteen-eighties, Babette (Stéphane Audran), the French servant of a pair of el- derly unmarried sisters (Birgitte Federspiel and Bodil Kjer), prepares a special dinner for her employers and their guests-a lavIsh, one-time-only orgy of haute cuisine served to a group of devout Lutherans who are used to receiving the Lord's bounty in the form of grim little slabs of boiled fish Adapting one of Isak Dinesen's ((Anecdotes of Destiny," Ga- briel Axel, the writer-director, tells this sim- ple tale simply. He establishes a lulling, bed- time-story tone right from the start, perhaps too successfully: our eyelids begin to seem very heavy after twenty minutes or so. The whole thing turns out to be about the con- solations of art, and the union of ((righteous- ness and bliss." The film is more righteous than blissful: a more austere celebration of the pleasures of the senses would be difficult to imagine. In Danish and French.- T.R. (Cinema Studio) BAGDAD CAFÉ-After an argument with her hus- band on a godforsaken stretch of highway at the edge of the Mojave Desert, a fat German tourist named Jasmin (Marianne Sägebrecht) checks into a crummy motel attached to the equally crummy Bagdad Café. This movie, the first in English by the German director Percy Adlon (whose 1985 ((Sugarbaby" was also a vehicle for Sägebrecht), is filled with eccentrics who are apparently meant to be lovable. The rather precious conceit of the film is that Jasmin somehow brings the outcast characters together in a kind of ex- tended family; by the end, the Bagdad Café has been transformed into a popular roadside cabaret, with everyone contributing a specialty (Jasmin does magic tricks). The American performers are trapped in a movie that treats them as merely exotic-waxwork grotesques waiting to be animated by a mys- terious German touch. Eleonore Adlon and Christopher Doherty collaborated with the director on the screenplay. With CCH Pound- er, Jack Palance, and Christine Kaufmann - T.R. (Lincoln Plaza) BEETLEJUICE-Set in an idyllic New England town, this farce about the afterlife is a vari- ant on "Topper" (1937) and ((The Old Dark Housel) (1932). A devoted, home-loving young couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) are drowned in a car accident, and when they return to their house as ghosts they are miffed by the redecorating of the New Yorkers who have bought it. Too mild to scare these intruders away, they call upon the services of the rutty little demon Betel- geuse (pronounced Beetlejuice). Michael Kea- ton plays the part, and his uninhibited comic performance is like an exploding head He isn't onscreen nearly enough-when he is, he shoots the film sky-high. The story is bland and the movie is slow to get going, but with crazy comedy you settle for the moments of inspiration, and this picture has them. The young director, Tim Burton, takes stabs into the irrational and the incongruous; the film's blandness is edged with near-genius (and some great special effects). The smudge-faced blond Catherine O'Hara, who's the possessor of the freakiest blue-eyed stare since early Gene Wilder, is brilliant as the madwoman who is the new lady of the house. (4/18/88) (Loews 84th Street Sixplex, and Criterion Center. . . . t]j Movieland 8th Street Triplex, and Manhattan Twin; through May 24.) BODY HEAT (1981)-Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed this forties pastiche that verges on camp but takes itself straight. He has devised a style that is a catalogue of noir clichés-deco titles, flames and a heat wave, ceiling fans, tinkling wind chimes, old tunes, chicanery in muted voices, a weak man (Wil- liam Hurt) and a femme fatale in white (Kathleen Turner), and insinuating, hotted- up dialogue that it would be fun to hoot at if only the hushed, sleepwalking manner of the film didn't make you cringe or yawn. He poses Turner as a hot number, and she proceeds to lure Hurt, who's a chump, to murder her rich husband (Richard Crenna) As Teddy, a professional arsonist, Mickey Rourke almost makes you feel that you're at a real movie. Cinematography by Richard H Kline. (Thalia SoHo; May 24.) BROADCAST NEws-With William Hurt, Albert Brooks, and Holly Hunter; directed by James L. Brooks (1/11/88) (Gotham Cinema; through May 24 ) COLORS-This muckraking melodrama about L.A.'s two most powerful confederations of